For posterity so I can pretend I did anything on purpose

[eve11]

Made turkey stuffed peppers tonight, Italian style. Winged the recipe and it's cooking now but it smells good anyhow. It has some carbs from the rice (but you can use brown or wild) and the bread crumbs (but there aren't many of those).

So before I forget

4 bell peppers sliced in half
8 slices mozzarella cheese (or grated, enough to top each pepper)
pasta sauce of your choosing

for the filling:
1 carrot, diced
1/4 onion, diced
1/4 green bell pepper, diced (optional; I had 3/4 of a pepper to use)
1 tbsp minced garlic
olive oil
1 pound 85% lean ground turkey

1 cup cooked brown & wild rice (minute cup, heated 1min in the microwave)
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes
1 tsp (ish) umami powder (optional, give some robustness to the turkey)
1 tbsp balsamic glaze (optional, ditto as above. I had some in my fridge leftover but you could also use ketchup to get a tangy flavor?)
~3/4 cup bread crumbs
~1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (grated from a block, don't use pre-shredded the powdered kind that comes in the green-topped can)
1 egg

2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp parsley flakes
ground black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp paprika

Preheat oven to 375.

Saute the garlic and diced veggies in oil until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Add turkey and break up the chunks and brown. Add spices, cooked rice, tomatoes, umami powder, balsamic glaze and stir to combine. Take off heat and stir in cheese. Sprinkle bread crumbs and mix in to absorb some of the moisture and stir to combine. Transfer filling to a bowl, spread against the sides and let cool for a little bit. Beat the egg and temper it with bits of the mixture so it doesn't cook, then transfer to the mix and stir it around to incorporate.

Put a thin layer of pasta sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 16 glass dish. Lay out the pepper halves, fill with filling, top with ~2 tbsp sauce each and some sliced or shredded mozzarella. Bake for... not sure yet. Likely at least 30 minutes for the filling to cook (the turkey is pre-browned but the egg and rice and bread crumbs will need to incorporate and bind stuff together, reaching 160 for the egg) and the cheese to get melty and the sauce to get bubbly. (Might want to wait and add cheese for the last 15 minutes next time)



I shall report back on the outcome.

Verdict: the flavor profile was great, but there was too much moisture for the egg/rice and bread crumbs to work as a binding, would need way more bread crumbs. So next time I will probably leave those out and just have it be crumbly (since it was crumbly anyhow). The other option would be to put way more cheese in them and have them stick together that way.

Comments

[giallarhorn]

Ohh, that sounds pretty good!

there was too much moisture for the egg/rice and bread crumbs to work as a binding

A trick with the rice is to use 1-2 day old rice you've already cooked? Though I dunno how well it'd work as a binding here- mostly I do that for making fried rice, cause fresh rice is too moisture heavy in that context.

[a_phoenixdragon]

I vote more cheese, lol!

*HUGS*